Happy Halloween

Its a spooky place around here! Ghosts and scary witches! Giorgia just looks good enough to eat as a Tootsie Roll! We had so much fun dressing these little girls up!

Giorgia

We welcomed little Giorgia to this world on . She is doing great and Big sister Olivia is in love with her!

Giorgia weighed 7 lbs 7ozs and is 20 inches long.

Happy Canada Day!

We decided to celebrate this lovely Canada Day with a nice picnic to one of our favorite places outside Calgary. Ian and I used to go to Forgetmenot Pond before we had Olivia and enjoy evenings in the mountains. It is a beautiful place! We haven't been in over a year and thought today would be a great day to see it in all its summer glory. So we packed a picnic and headed out. It was a wonderful family day!

Happy Father's Day!

Olivia woke up this morning and I heard her say to Ian..."OH! Guess what daddy! Today is Father's Day!! Happy Father's Day!!!" What a lucky girl she is to have such a wonderful daddy!

Soccer

We have been busy with so many things and then nothing at all at the same time. Olivia has started soccer and well, at this point it is almost over! But she has enjoyed it at times, and at other times just wants the snack they get at the half way point. Typical. Here are just a few pictures of her playing.
Here are a few pictures from our hail and snow we recently got, yes in June!
I am going to try to get better at blogging again. Now that I am officially off for Maternity leave for a year. We are patiently awaiting our new little bundle of joy - expected July 21. So I will have to get lots of new pictures on here then. Keep hanging in there with me, I will get better!

La Familia!

We just got back from a great trip to Arkansas where it was actually spring! No snow in sight, green grass, and plenty of outside time for Olivia.

We got there first and had so much fun with Grandmama Cheryl. Olivia loved going to Grandpa Piero's restaurant and Granna Sara was a big hit with a new little stuffy bunny for Olivia to snuggle (which hasn't been outta sight since she got it!). Uncle Marco and Uncle Mario were bigger than life to Olivia, it took some time to warm up to Marco since he is so much bigger than she is, but after a little bit there were hugs and giggles all around. Then my Aunt Mariella from Italy got to town and Olivia was practicing her Italian saying, "Ciao Zia!" And throwing in a few Spanish "buenos dias" for good measure.

The Gieseckes got there, finally, and we were all together after who knows how many years! It was sooo great and we had a wonderful time talking, eating, the kids playing and just hanging out.

We will have to do it all again after this baby comes and maybe some more of the Trimarchi's can come too!

Pictures are in the best order I can get them in, after all we took something like 250, so it may take a few posts!:)

More pictures to come...this is all I can do for now!!:)

Saturday in Nanton

Nanton is a little town about 40 minutes away from Calgary. We usually just pass through on our way south to Ft. Macleod. But we desperately needed a family outing as we have all been suffering from the winter doldrums! So we decided to drive to Nanton to visit the train store. There is a little place there that is a train collectors dream. From the entire Thomas the Tank Engine line, to some really serious electric trains, its got everything. And in the spring - which we found out isn't until early May - they have an outdoor play garden with a ride-on train, play areas with trains, and a huge electric train that goes around it all. Sounds great, not ready yet though. So we just looked around and then decided it would be a great place to come back to in a few months.
After our playtime at the train store, we (or well I) was more than ready for lunch so we went to a little weird restaurant there in Nanton for a bite to eat. Next, we decided that we had also never taken advantage of the Nanton Aircraft Museum, so what the heck! It was really cool. Inside the little aircraft hanger were planes used in WWII and some paraphernalia from the wars and the Royal Canadian Air Force.

There was a huge bomber plane that you could go inside too. Ian went in first with his hard hat on and Olivia said - NO WAY! But she changed her mind and went in with him the 2nd time. Then she went in over and over and over again!

Then we took a little walk over to the park where, although it was windy, Olivia got to run and play for a while. That was great for she fell asleep as soon as she was in the car on the way home.
We went to Auntie Pat's for dinner, where the day was completed with Olivia playing a serious game of pool.

Ice Skating

Olivia finally got to go for her first try at ice skating! Thanks to Auntie Pat who has ice skates and knows how to skate, unlike her mother!! Of course, growing up in Arkansas, I had no idea there were so many winter sports. I knew of ice skating, but that was mostly on TV, it wasn't something I wanted to do, or thought about doing. But Olivia will be a true Canadian, getting her first skates at 3 - Ian was already skating at 2!!!

Anyway, Olivia loved it! She did really well and only fell once, but after the fall, it was over until next time.All ready to go!

Here we go!
This is hard Work.

So much fun.
Taking a break to warm up.
I can do it all by myself!!!

Then she fell at some point but I had gone in to warm up a bit, plus, that wouldn't have been nice of me to catch it on camera. After skating we went back to Auntie Pat's house for some nice hot chocolate and a snack. I think Olivia will be ready to go again soon!

Big Girl Bed!

We finally got Olivia outta her crib and into a new big girl bed! She has loved it! It took some time to get all the bedding but once it finally got here, the room looks really good. We didn't get a head board and "bed" per say, we are waiting to see if she will get a new room too!:)

So here are the pics from when the bed first got here to this weekend when we finally got the bedding!

This right after they delivered the bed. Needless to say, there was no nap on this day!

I haven't had time to post anything lately. So I see that Ian threw up some pictures for us! Well, at least we all know that we are still around and busy as ever! So, maybe we will just put up pictures for a while until I can think up some good stuff to write!

I think this picture says alot...